• Free
  • Grade 8
  • Ordered pairs and tables

Is it a function? worksheets

A function gives every input exactly one output. These free printable worksheets ask whether a set of pairs or a table does that.

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  • Answer key included
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Ready to printIs it a function?
Is it a function? worksheet — Ordered pairs and tables, free printable with answer key

The answer key prints on a separate page.

What's on this sheet

The rule is one sentence long, which is why it needs a sheet: it is easy to recite and easy to apply backwards. A repeated OUTPUT is fine — (1, 3) (2, 5) (4, 5) is a function, and so is a flat day where every hour reads the same temperature. A repeated INPUT is what breaks it, and only when the two pairs disagree. A child who has heard "no repeats" remembers the ban without the half of the sentence that says which column it applies to.

Why this sheet works

So every sheet here carries relations that repeat an output and are still functions, sitting beside relations that repeat an input and are not. That is deliberate: a page whose only repeated numbers are the illegal ones can be cleared by hunting for duplicates, which tests eyesight rather than the definition. Roughly half the relations that repeat a number are functions.

How this one works

One question from this sheet, worked through a step at a time.

x: 11, 11, 22, 8 y: 32, 31, 26, 7

x1111228y3231267
x1111228y3231267inputs1111228
x1111228y3231267inputs1111228
Is this a function?No
  1. A function has one rule: every input gets exactly ONE output. So there is only one column to check — the inputs, which are the top row of the table.
  2. Pull the inputs out on their own and look at them together: 11, 11, 22, 8. Nothing about the outputs matters yet.
  3. 11 is in that list twice, and the two pairs it belongs to do not agree: the input 11 goes to 32 and also to 31, and one input may only go to one place.
  4. One input, two different outputs. That is the one thing a function is not allowed to do, so this relation is not a function.